Bahamas Marine Ecocentre

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
464866535
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2023, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2015
Location
Miami, FL, USA
Phone
3052380186
Rating
68
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$136,595
Expenses
$96,242
Assets
$90,107
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Ruth Pamela Reid (President)

People named in this filing

  • Ruth Pamela Reid (President)
  • Alexander Tecle (Treasurer)
  • Peter Ortner (Director)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Research and Education: Bahamas Marine EcoCentre focuses on marine science education and research and promotes scientific and artistic activities that foster environmental stewardship. In 2025, activities were focused in three geographic areas: Bahamas, Western Australia, and Northern Chile, as outlined in Lines 28-30. Research on gypsum depositional system in lagoons in the Atacama Desert, which initiated as a consulting service in 2017, became a funded research project in 2018. Supported by the Chilean mining company, SQM, BME is investigating the role of microbes in sedimentation in the desert lagoon systems.

What it reported doing in 2025

Our second geographic area of research was the Atacama Desertof northern Chile where we continued monitoring stromatolite growth in saline lagoons. This research involved two research fellows and a consultant. Program expenses pertain to field activities, sample analyses and writing reports and publications. Two papers were published from results of this research : 1. Suosaari, E.P., Dupraz, C., Oehlert, A.M., Lascu, I., Vitek, B.E., Piggot, A.M. Palma, A.T., Reid, R.P. (2025) Coupled authigenic Mg silicate and carbonate precipitation in saline lakes of the Salar de Atacama, Northern Chile. The Depositional Record, 00, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1002/dep2.70055 and 2. Kong, T., Reid, R.P.; Suosaari, E.P., Maizel, D., Daza, L.R., Palma, A.T., Oehlert, A.M. 2025. Lake morphology and meteorological conditions impact stratification of saline lakes in the Atacama Desert. Plos One https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321759. Program service costs include payments to university laboratories for sample analysis and consulting services.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 65% for direct work, and 35% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 60
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 71
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 51.8%; rating input score 52
  • Program expense ratio: 73.6%; rating input score 74

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 29.5%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.94; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 17.2% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -4% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -3% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 51.8% of revenue deployed · 73.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $71K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 52/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 57/100.